Saints Boys BB suffer two more losses in games against Pipestone and Waseca

Wednesday

Jan 25, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 25, 2012 at 8:42 PM

The Saints took a long road trip on a blustery Saturday to Pipestone. The boys basketballers started out hot by quickly jumping out to a 10-2 lead.

Doug DeDecker

Pipestone 62 Saints 48

The Saints took a long road trip on a blustery Saturday to Pipestone. The boys basketballers started out hot by quickly jumping out to a 10-2 lead.
But the Saints shooting turned as icy as the prairie winds, and the boys ultimately lost to the Arrows 62 to 48. It was Pipestone’s first win of the season.
At one point the Saints missed 19 three point shot attempts in a row, and finished 3 of 22 from beyond the arc. The Saints made their first two 3 point attempts in building that early lead.
The shooting freeze frustrated Coach Steve Walker, “We had an early lead, but then our shooting touch left us.”
The Saints still managed to keep the game close trailing only 29 to 26 with 13:50 to go in the second half.
The Arrows were able to build on that lead as the Saints shooting remained in the deep freeze. The hosts opened up a 46 to 32 lead with 4:30 to go in the game.
Pressure D and an up tempo offense had the Saints cut the lead down to eight points several times in the waining minutes. The last time was 56 to 48 with less than a minute to play.
The Arrows converted their free throws down the stretch, pushing the final score to 62 to 48.
Zach Brandts led the Saints with 21 points, with 16 of those points coming from inside the arc. The remaining five were earned at the line. For the game the Saints hit a respectable 69% from the charity stripe.
Walker Froehling added 14 points and Joe Nelson tossed in 11. Brandts had 15 rebounds for the Saints.
Coach Walker summed the game up, “Offensively we had no flow. We had very quick possessions when we need to be more patient. If we are to be successful we need more guys contributing on offense and more balance.”
Froehling, Nelson, and?Brandts each had more than 15 field goal attempts. No other Saint had more than two.

Waseca 85 Saints 64

The Saints may have started out hot against Pipestone on Saturday, but they started out cold when they hosted Waseca in a conference game last Friday night.

The visiting Bluejays shot out to a 16 to 2 lead before Colby Rogers nailed a trey to make the score 16 to 5.
The Saints proceeded to slow the Jays down, and cut the lead down to 17 to 12 on a three point shot by Walker Froehling.
Every mini run by the Saints was matched by Waseca. Back to back treys by the Bluejays opened the lead back up to 25 to 14.
Waseca pushed the lead out to 39 to 21 with a little over three minutes to play in the first half. The Saints kept battling back, and three point shots by Rogers, Froehling, and Sam Carlson helped cut the lead to 41 to 30.
The Saints made a pair of free throws with six seconds left in the half to cut the lead to under ten, but Waseca raced the inbound pass up the court and scored a bucket in the paint as time expired to make the lead 43 to 32 for the Jays at the break.
The Saints could not get the lead under 10 in the second half.
The Saints were forced to press, and had some success. At one point, the Saints forced the Jays to turn it over three times in a row, but only got one free throw for this effort.
For the most part the bigger and more experienced Bluejays handled the press, and kept building on their lead.
The Bluejays started three seniors and three players 6’3” or taller, while the Saints started one player greater than that height.
Waseca senior Zach Hiller led all scorers making four treys and ending up with 21 points. Coach Steve Walker noted Hiller had a terrific game.
Froehling had 19 points for the Saints, Zach Brandts had 18, and Rogers added 11.
The Saints travel to New Ulm on Friday night for a game against the Eagles. The B squad games starts at 6 p.m.

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